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Old Elvic
Old Elvic The Old Elvic language is the oldest remaining Elvic language, and the last common ancestor of the Nesarian, Eshérian, High Elvish and Avamorian languages, as well as the now-extinct Vampiric language. Since the original text of the Ticae Baca is written in Old Elvic, as well as many of the original prayers, Old Elvic remains as the traditional liturgical language for Elveta. Elvic Christians also often translate their liturgies into Old Elvic rather than their own native language. When the Nesarians and High Elves made contact during the reign of Emperor Athdus III, they mutually analysed each other's versions of Old Elvic that they had preserved. It was decided that the version the Nesarians had preserved was more accurate to the original language, although some Elves still stubbornly stick to the small variations that exist in their version of Old Elvic. Black Elves do not use Old Elvic, as their religious tradition is rooted in their own language. Compared to modern Nesarian and High Elvish, Old Elvic has more complex grammar, less rigid pronunciation rules and longer words. Especially compared to Nesarian, the sound of the language is also much softer, and some sounds appear that were later dropped by both Nesarian and High Elvish. It shares the trait of having the meaning of words changed predominantly through suffixes, and it maintains a system of vowel harmony in the suffixes, which High Elvish maintains but was lost in Nesarian. Old Elvic also has a great number of compound words, particularly vowels, which results in typically very long words but less of them, as entire sentences can be shortened down to one or two words. Probably to make the words easier to remember and more flexible, these compound words were broken up by Old Elvic's descendants into much shorter words that express more basic concepts. Pronunciation * C is pronounced as a hard "k", unless it is immediately following a consonant, where it makes a "ch". This rule is ignored if an R immediately follows the C. To signal that it should always make a "ch" regardless of placement, CC is used, or Č in the High Elvish version. To signal that a C should be a hard "k" even if it would violate the rules, a K is used instead. * Q is pronounced "ch" or "kh" (x), as in lo'ch' or kh'an. Sometimes, in Old Elvic, to avoid confusion, this is represented as KH instead. * T is pronounced as a hard "t" regardless of the letters around it. * G is pronounced as a hard "g", unless it is at the start of a word or immediately following a consonant, where it becomes "dj" (dʒ), as in '''g'iant. * O is pronounced as a short "oh" (ɒ), like in p'o'''d. * AU is pronounced "ow" (aʊ), like the "ou" in m'ou'th. * Œ is pronounced "oer" (œ) as in b'ir'''d or German kö'nig. * EU is pronounced "ew" (ju) as in the British English pronunciation of kn'ew'. * AE is pronounced "ay" or "ey" (eɪ), as in f'a'ce. * AI is pronounced "ai" (aɪ) as in '''i'ce. * EA is pronounced "aya" or "aea" (eɪæ), as in Plat'aea' * SZ is pronounced "zh" (ʒ), as in plea's'''ure. * IR is pronounced "ear" (ɪər), as in, well, '''ear', or f'ier'ce. * ÉR is pronounced "air" (ɛə), as in squ'are' or M'ar'y. * TH is pronounced like the "th" (θ) in th'igh, unless it is at the start of a word or immediately following a consonant, where it is the "th" (ð) in fa'th'er. * NG is pronounced "ng" (ŋ) as in si'ng. Sound Shifts Although a great deal of the words in the Nesarian language are either Elvicised forms of native words or Old Elvic words combined with native words, there are also many words straight from Old Elvic - and, in fact, the Nesarians have done a much better job of preserving Elvic-derived words in their original form than the High Elves, with only these sound shifts occurring. Although these rules are not always true, broadly speaking the following shifts happened between Old Elvic and Nesarian (through Old Eshérian): Consonant Shifts * The consonant F in Old Elvic has become V in the majority of cases in Nesarian, although words taken from native languages did not experience this shift, and nearly all words in modern Nesarian that have the letter F are native and not Elvic in origin. To work backwards from Nesarian to Old Elvic, generally a V becomes an F unless it is at the start of a word. * Every sound represented by a C, CC or K in Old Elvic has become a hard C in Nesarian. * The consonant represented by Q (x in IPA) also became a hard C in Nesarian. Since the Nesarian language never got rid of the letter Q, it is easy to work backwards from Nesarian to Old Elvic. * In many but not all cases, SZ in Old Elvic became simply S in Nesarian. * In some cases, X in Old Elvic became simply C in Nesarian. Vowel Shifts * The sound now represented as Y loosened to j (as in y'es) from ɪ (as in l'i'd). To avoid confusion, this sound is represented as Í in Old Elvic. ** Whereas the Nesarian word (meaning "Him") is Niyu, pronounced "nee-yoo" (niːjuː), the Old Elvic word is Neíó, pronounced "ne-i-aw" (nɛɪɔː). * The sound now represented as A shortened to æ (as in p'a'd) from ɑː (as in f'a'ther). To avoid confusion, this sound is represented as Á in Old Elvic. ** Whereas the Nesarian word is Yakela, pronounced "ya-keh-la" (jækɛlæ), the Old Elvic word is Íácalá, pronounced "íaa-ka-laa" (ɪɑːkælɑː). * The sound now represented as E moved further forward in the mouth to ɛ (as in b'e't) from æ (as in tr'a'p). To avoid confusion, this sound is represented as A in Old Elvic, the letter that is used in modern Nesarian for æ. ** Whereas the Nesarian word (meaning "Light") is Eve, pronounced "eh-veh" (ɛvɛ), the Old Elvic word is Afa, pronounced "A-fa" (æfæ). * The sound now represented as U moved further forward in the mouth to uː (as in f'oo'd) from ɔː (as in s'aw). To avoid confusion, this sound is represented as Ó in Old Elvic. In the Old Elvish dialect, it was oː (as in b'ough't), but they experienced the same vowel shift and arrived at uː. ** Wheras the Nesarian word (meaning "King") is Retu, pronounced "reh-too" (rɛtuː), the Old Elvic word is Rató, pronounced "ra-taw" (rætɔː). * The sound now represented as I moved further forward in the mouth and lengthened to iː (as in b'ea'n) from ɛː (as in h'air '''or Esh'ér'''). To avoid confusion, this sound is represented as É in Old Elvic. ** Whereas the Nesarian word (meaning "Life") is Disu, pronounced "dee-soo" (diːsuː), the Old Elvic word is Désó, pronounced "dehh-saw" (dɛːsɔː). Suffixes Here is a list of all the suffixes that can modify the meaning of a word in Old Elvic. There are more suffixes in Old Elvic than in its modern descendants, mainly relating to variants on verbs. The second suffix will be the version of the suffix that you add if the word ends in a vowel or a soft consonant such as "r". An "ae" at the end of a word becomes "a" when adding a suffix unless the original word is just one syllable that ends in "ae". For all of the verb suffixes, the "f" becomes a "v" if the syllable immediately before contains an "f". These are the suffixes, where ▯ is a vowel that changes depending upon the vowels preceding it to maintain vowel harmony: * "a" or "ta" makes a singular noun into a plural noun. If following a syllable which begins with "t", it becomes a/ra rather than a/ta. * "szir" turns a noun into its possessive form. If the word ends in an "s" or "sz" followed by one vowel, the vowel is dropped and replaced with "szir". This suffix is the same regardless of whether it follows a consonant or vowel. * "▯sz" / "f▯sz" makes a noun into a present tense verb ("they ride" or "he cleans"). Note that the "sz" is always dropped if it is immediately followed by a word beginning with a consonant. * "▯szé" / "f▯szé" makes a noun into a past tense verb ("they rode" or "he cleaned"). In the High Elvish version of Old Elvic, this suffix is "▯szau" / "f▯szau". * "▯szá" / "f▯szá" makes a noun into a future tense verb ("they will ride" or "he will clean"). * "▯szó" / "f▯szó" makes a noun into a past participle verb ("they have ridden" or "he has cleaned"). * "▯ng" / "f▯ng" makes a noun into a present participle verb ("they are riding" or "he is cleaning"). * "▯ngé" / "f▯ngé" makes a noun into a present participle verb, but in the past tense ("they were riding" or "he was cleaning"). In the High Elvish version of Old Elvic, this suffix is "▯ngau" / "f▯ngau". * "▯sá" / "r▯sá" makes a noun into an adverb. If the word ends in "s" by itself or followed by a vowel, this is removed and replaced with whichever form of the suffix fits. * "sz▯" makes a noun into an adjective. * "cá" makes an adjective into a comparative adjective ("great" to "greater"). This is added onto the "▯sz" that turns a word into an adjective. * "cé" makes an adjective into a superlative adjective ("great" to "greatest"). This is added onto the "▯sz" that turns a word into an adjective. In the High Elvish version of Old Elvic, this suffix is "cau". * "ai" makes a place name into a demonym. Note that third person present verbs (e.g. "he runs" or "she eats") also do not exist, you simply use the standard form of the present verb ("he run" and "she eat"). Vowel Harmony Wherever a ▯ is used, the immediately prior vowel is repeated in place of ▯. In the case of "krœná", the word for "war", to turn this into its verb form it would become "krœnáfász".